Yet another response to Li Qingzhao’s “As in a Dream: A Song”

Who are all these men in front of me?
Flickering shades across my cellphone screen.
When it is time for bed I turn off my phone,
All of them hide from view.
Nowhere to be seen.
Nowhere to be seen.
It’s almost as if I was always all alone.

AGG20140413

As in a Dream: A Song
by Li Qingzhao, tr. by AGG

Who is that in the light beside me as I sit alone in the window?
Just my shadow and myself.
When the lamp sputters out I want to sleep,
But my shadow has hidden itself from view.
Not there. Not there.
I am truly desolate and alone.

Depth Charge: 词/Ci poems were originally written as song lyrics and the convention is to name them after the tune of the song they were written to, even though the actual tunes are long lost. This is why you have multiple poems with the same title, as in here and here.